My favorite part of our second week of bicycle touring in Thailand was the food. It felt like it was one good meal after another. We spent two nights in Prachuap Khiri Khan. On our full day there we rode over to Ao Manao Beach.
Here’s the coconut milk soup and seaweed soup lunch that they served us at our small table on the beach under the shade of pine trees.
Continue readingMy favorite part of our first week of bicycle touring in Thailand was the food. We usually found restaurants fairly easily.
The start of another bicycle trip. We had tickets from İstanbul (IST) to Bangkok via New Delhi on indigo. This turned out to be my fourth winter in row in the tropics (after Sri Lanka, Raja Ampat, and the Philippines). At some point I’ll have to get used to cold weather again… I guess, maybe (?).
But first, how to get to IST? The bus from Antalya (via Esenler) was, of course, an option, but airfares were reasonable to SAW (Sahiba Gökçen) so we flew to SAW and took the bus from there. All this meant that we had time in IST to visit the airport archaeology museum. It also meant that it ended up being a 31-hour trip from our house in Antalya to a hotel in Bangkok.
Our guide in Luxor had talked about the world’s first peace treaty between the Hittites and the (Egyptian) New Kingdom after the battle of Kadesh. The İstanbul airport archaeology museum is not big, but here’s the Kadesh Treaty:
Continue readingWe took advantage of my cousin’s son’s short stay to get out for some nice day trips near Antalya. Philip visited for about a week in January before a stint of studying in Barcelona. I was excited to show him Perge — I had heard a year (or two or three) ago that the theater was now open for tourists. Doh! I should have gone as soon as I read the announcement. It’s closed again and sounds like it won’t be open for years. They need to do some stabilization work.
As before this is about the best view of the theater.
In more positive news they’ve moved the parking lot and entrance out of the center of the site. Now the stadium feels more like it’s actually within the archaeological area.
Continue readingThe Abbasids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans; mashrabiya and Mamluk minbars; mosques, madrasas, sabil, kuttab, khanqah, wekalat, and many mausoleums. There is a ton to see in Islamic Cairo.
The density of monuments on a 5km north-south stretch from the Citadel to Bab Al-Fotuh is phenomenal. I spent three days walking that section, one day to visit the northern cemetery (and Baron Empain Palace in Heliopolis), and another day south and west (mostly Ibn Tulun Mosque and Rhoda Island). My biggest regret is not making time for the Islamic Art Museum, but there’s also the southern cemetery, and, well, I have whole list (of just Islamic Cairo) that would probably take another five days.
I stayed in Abdin, not far from the eponymous palace and the Mohamed Naguib Metro Station. The hotel had no heat and poor insulation, but two thick warm comfortable comforters kept me cozy at night. From my balcony I could see the dome and minarets of Mohammed Ali Mosque at the Citadel.
I had breakfast around the corner every morning from a smiling, welcoming group of young guys.
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